Spotted in the Wild

For the past few days my frenzy over Trackers has gone totally unabated. As I drove around town, I would catch glimpses of a Tracker out of the corner of my eye and begin to yell excitedly to my frightened passengers. Finally, on my way through a parking lot I spotted a non-moving Tracker with its top down. I could not help myself from taking pictures.

Front end showing the prominent "Geo" logo.

Front and Side view. I love the shape of this car!

Back. Top is down and this is a good thing. It's 88 degrees today.

Another glorious shot.

I nearly lost it when I saw this car. Truly a practices in form and function. If I see any more, I'll snap a few pictures. But now, some historical facts about the Geo Tracker:

The Geo Tracker was a mini SUV introduced in late 1988 as a 1989 model. It was developed by CAMI which was a joint venture between General Motors of Canada and Suzuki. North American Models were to be built in Cami's Ingersoll, Ontario, Canada plant alongside its almost identical twin the domestic-built Suzuki Sidekick (Escudo). All 1989 and some 1990 Trackers were built in Japan and imported to the US because of delays at the CAMI factory in Canada. In 1990 production began in Ingersoll and all Trackers were now being built there

The Tracker was originally powered by Suzuki's G16A 1.6L 8V SOHC 4-Cylinder engine producing 80hp. In 1992 the Geo marque was brought to Canada so the Chevrolet Tracker became the Geo Tracker there as well. Also in 1992, the GMC Tracker became the Asuna Sunrunner and then in 1995 with the demise of Asüna became the Pontiac Sunrunner, discontinued in 1998. Although Suzuki started importing Sidekick 4-doors in 1991 CAMI didn't start producing them until the 1996 model year, when America got a 4 door Geo Tracker, now powered by Suzuki's G16B 16 valve 1.6L boasting 96hp. In 1998 the Geo nameplate was merged back into Chevrolet and all Geo Models including the Tracker were rebadged as Chevrolet's in 1998.

As part of its affordable new "international" line of vehicles, the Geo Tracker was introduced in select markets as a rebadged mini SUV and marketed through most of the 1990s at Chevrolet dealers across the U.S. Although the Tracker was eventually discontinued, it lived on well into the new millennium as a Chevy as well as the Suzuki Vitara, the vehicle that served as the basis for the Tracker all along. Confusing, yes, but as long as you recall the Tracker as a funky but flawed four-wheel-drive runabout, you'll understand it well enough.

A Monster is Born

Recently, the idea got in my head that it would be fun and exciting
to buy a beater and paint it vibrant and garish colors. I knew which kind of car I wanted but I couldn't remember what make or model it was, however, I did remember that it was in the opening of the movie "The Birdcage".

I spent the next few minutes in a desperate search for the mystery car. Finally I came upon a picture of a 1993 Geo Tracker. I had found my car.

I still didn't know how I wanted the car to look. I knew I wanted it to be campy/kitsch, perhaps reminiscent of the 80s. I considered many ideas over a period of about two weeks exploring the possibility of emblazoning the car with Zebra stripes, Pacman, artwork from a Junior Senior album, Bill Cosby's sweater designs, and the vibrant and stunning style from the Mika "Relax, take it easy" music video. I was at a complete and total loss.

All the sudden, having been hit with a brainwave, I knew what I wanted. I wanted to super-impose Mondrian's Composition II in Red, Blue and Yellow. But then I didn't. I realized it would be much cooler to paint the car as a token of Keith Haring's late 80s artworks. As I cruised through the official website I found a glorious painted BMW.

It was exactly what I wanted the Tracker to look like. Sort of. Different colors perhaps? It didn't matter. I knew I wanted to the car to be Keith Haring-esque. I could work from there. What exactly I would paint remained a mystery. How I would paint it, also a mystery. I figure some art student would kill to get their greasy paws on something like this, though.

Having identified the dream car and scoured the web for images for an appropriate paint job, I came to the biggest problem. Cashola. I had found several Trackers online for muy poco dinero (thanks Elliott). Even though some of them were to be had for as little as $600, I had no money at all.

I began looking for a job and being that it was the cusp of summer, I knew I had the time. Finally, I settled on submitting an application for Speedway. I based my profit scheme off of the following formula:

18 hours a day x 6 days a week x 18 days (3 weeks) x $7 an hours = Roughly $2268

I figured $2268 would cover the cost of purchase, shipping (if needed), restoration and painting. If not, I could work an additional week for an additional $756. I figured that 3-4 weeks of hell would be worth it for the beautiful tracker.

There's still quite a ways to go and I haven't gotten message back from Speedway about the job but I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I'm satisfied that I finally came up with a real idea of what the car should look like and I'll keep you posted on how things are going down with the project. Shame about the Mondrain idea though. I think I'll do it next summer on a Geo Metro.

~Tschuss for now.